What do we have to do to get USB support in a virtual machine?!?! Apparently the answer is: buy VMWare

I'm still recovering from yesterday when I was erroneously told (and later reported on my blog) that Virtual PC 2007 added support for USB devices.

When I first found out that USB devices were not supported in VPC 2007, I was upset and a little embarrassed that I had posted what turned out to be incorrect information on my blog. The first thing I did when I found out that USB devices aren't supported was to correct the post on the blog and apologize. I then went over to Loke's blog (he had a post referencing my announcement) to add a comment correcting the announcement and apologizing there as well. 

Once all that was done, the frustration and anger really hit me. How can we still not have USB support in Virtual PC. USB support has been one of the most requested features of Virtual PC for at least 2 years. To be fair, I don't know anything about building emulation tools therefore I have no idea what the level of difficulty is to implement USB support as compared to other features of Microsoft's virtualization tools. What I do know is that VMWare has supported USB devices for years. So it can obviously be done.

I'm a big proponent of Microsoft overall - I believe that overall they provide excellent tools and that they want to give their consumers the features that we're looking for. That said, this USB support thing is just driving me crazy. People have given feedback regarding the need for USB support through every channel imaginable. Still nothing.

Microsoft!! please, Please, PLEASE can we get USB support added to the virtualization tools!!!

We keep asking for this and get nothing back on it - what will it take to get the Microsoft VPC team to recognize that USB support is one of the most needed and desired features for their virtualization technologies.

If anyone from the VPC team is reading this, please chime in. Maybe if we understood the reason that it's not supported we could understand a little better. Right now it's just frustrating. Those of you reading this message - if you want USB support, let the VPC team know by posting a comment to their blog.